A bus carrying Sri Lankan tourists skidded off a mountain road and plunged nearly 1,000 feet (300 metres) in the hill town of Ella, killing 15 people, police said Friday. Sixteen others sustained injuries in the late-night crash on Thursday.
The group was returning from a holiday in the tea plantation highlands when their bus collided with another vehicle, smashed through guardrails, and tumbled down a steep slope.
Authorities described the accident as the deadliest since May, when 23 passengers were killed in a bus crash in Kotmale.
Sri Lanka’s winding mountain roads are notorious for accidents, with the country of 22 million people recording about 3,000 road deaths annually.
